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History of Antique Gold Pocket Watches

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Time has usually been a valued part, and now becomes a valuable element for those that collect antique gold pocket watches. 

The history of pocket watches extends back to the mid 1400′s, evidenced by a letter from an Italian clockmaker to a nobleman.  In the document, the noble is offered what was called as a pocket clock by the clockmaker.  A businessperson of German descent was making pocket watches in 1524 in England employing a revolutionary spring technology ; clock faces that exhibited only 1 hand to indicate the hour now took the place of using the sun to tell time.  Time may be guestimated inside an hour or so of the real time.  The minute hand was added much later on in the late 1600′s when technology advanced even further ; enabling wearers of the watches to gauge time inside mins of the time.  As technology authorized more definitive time gauging, more embellishments were added to meet a growing interest in the watches. 

Portable watches, as they were called in the early days, were first assembled of steel by blacksmiths and locksmiths as they were used to working with the alloy.  Over time, other better substances were used instead,eg brass, silver and gold.  Jewels and fragile scroll work were added to embellish some of the watches to make them more tasty for the rich.  Antique gold pocket watches, especially those with jewels, are especially valuable for collectors due to these gildings. 

Waltham, Elgin, Hamilton, Ball and Illinois are some of the early producers of pocket watches whose products are among those valued the highest.  Going back to the mid 1800′s and of beautiful design, many of these watches are requested as collectibles.  Another popular collector type of pocket watch is a series called Railroad watches.  These timepieces were used by train engineers in critical time keeping schedules for train arrivals and departures.  The accuracy of the watches were more precisely accurate than most, as any variance of time quicker or slower could mean sad situations for 2 trains on one track.  As with any antique, the value of the item relies on how much a buyer is willing to pay for it. 

The prize of many collectors is antique gold pocket watches, with histories that go back almost 150 years.  Regularly owned by the well to do in society, these watchs would likely have smashing stories if they were only able to tell more than time.

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Written by Guest

December 19th, 2009 at 8:01 am

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